Hostage Situation
by badly-knitted
Summary: Dee is at the forefront of a tense hostage situation on a rooftop. Written using the dw100 prompt 'Ledge'. Set after Vol. 7.


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 **Title:** Hostage Situation

 **Author:** badly_knitted

 **Characters:** Dee, Ryo, OCs.

 **Rating:** PG-13

 **Setting:** After Vol. 7.

 **Summary:** Dee is at the forefront of a tense hostage situation on a rooftop.

 **Word Count:** 1443

 **Written Using:** The dw100 prompt 'Ledge'

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.

 **A/N:** This was supposed to be a drabble, but it had other ideas…

Heights didn't scare Dee, they never had. He liked rooftops and the opportunity to look out over the city. That said, he wouldn't want to fall from up here, any more than the hostage did. She stood on the wall that ran around the building, her captor trying to hide behind her, holding a gun to her head.

Why did fugitives from justice always think taking a hostage would improve their situation? It almost never did, and it usually ended with someone getting killed, often messily. Well, not this time. Not if Dee had anything to say about it. He wanted this bastard alive to stand trial.

The guy with the gun had nowhere to go; the only way down was the same way he'd come up, but now Dee and several other cops were between him and the stairwell. He couldn't jump to the next roof, it was too far and even if it wasn't, he'd have to turn his back on them and let go of the terrified young shop assistant he was using as a shield. The moment he did that, he'd be shot.

"Try anything and I'll kill her!" the idiot yelled.

"Kill her and we kill you," Dee yelled back. "Give it up; you can't win!"

A hostage negotiation team was on the way, but it was doubtful they'd get there in time, not the way the guy on the ledge was freaking out. Dee kept shifting his feet restlessly, gradually inching closer.

"Listen to me; you're out of options, there's nowhere for you to go, but nobody has to die, not the girl and not you. Just give it up, let her go and throw down your weapon."

"And then what? I get to spend the rest of my life in jail? I'd rather die and take as many of you bastard cops with me as I can!"

Dee was sure he was bluffing; his hand was shaking so badly the only way he'd hit any of the cops ranged across the rooftop would be by blind luck. Still, it wouldn't be good if he started shooting, and if the cops returned fire and hit him, he'd go over the edge, taking his hostage with him.

The guy was right-handed, so he had his left arm around the terrified girl, the gun in his right fist, barrel pressed against her temple, finger on the trigger. If anything startled him, that finger could twitch and she'd be dead. It was stalemate.

"I've got a clear shot," Ryo's voice whispered in Dee's ear, "but it's too risky. I need his gun pointing away from the hostage."

There was no point in replying, Ryo wouldn't be expecting him to, so Dee gave up his attempt to close the distance without the gunman realising and instead took a step forward.

Immediately the gun swung away from the hostage and towards Dee. "Don't come any closer or I swear I'll kill you!"

Dee froze, poised ready to move fast, and before the gunman could turn his weapon back on the hostage, a bullet took him through the right shoulder, the force of it knocking him forwards, but twisting him sideways too so that the girl was teetering on the brink of the narrow ledge, perilously close to falling. Dee started moving a fraction of a second before he heard the shot, lunging across the intervening distance to grab the hostage by the arm, pulling her towards him and away from the seven-storey drop.

As they crashed to the rooftop, Dee's body cushioning the girl's fall, the other cops converged on the injured man. The gun had fallen from his hand the instant the bullet had ripped through his shoulder, suddenly nerveless fingers losing their grip. He was no danger to anyone now, but two of the uniformed officers worked quickly, putting pressure on the wound, trying to stem the bleeding. It hadn't been a kill shot, but he could still die from blood loss.

Paramedics who'd been stationed on the floor below, ready to assist, were there in moments, taking over from them as a few metres away, Dee comforted the crying girl. "Shhh, it's okay, you're safe now."

She wouldn't let go of Dee, and he couldn't really blame her after what she'd been through, so he helped her up and guided her into the stairwell. He didn't bother waiting for the elevator, which was already on its way down full of paramedics, cops, and the injured perp. Instead he just kept on going down the stairs, which was no bad thing. The monotony of walking down seven flights seemed to help the girl to gather herself. By the time they reached the bottom, although still shaky she seemed a lot calmer and more in control.

"Who shot him?" she asked Dee as they came out on the stoop. "A sniper like in the movies?" An ambulance was waiting at the kerb, the medics ready to check her over and take her to the hospital for treatment if necessary.

"My partner." Dee pointed as Ryo emerged from a building down the street, gun case in hand, and started towards them. "One of the top two marksmen on the force." He felt a surge of pride. That had been a tough shot, it had needed to be taken from lower down and at a steep angle so that the other cops on the roof wouldn't be put at risk from friendly fire, and there'd been little margin for error because of the hostage.

"Can I meet him? I'd like to thank him; the two of you saved my life."

"We were just doin' our job," Dee told her, but he beckoned Ryo over anyway. He wanted to congratulate him on a job well done.

"Everything alright?" Ryo asked.

"Yeah, thanks to you. That was a great shot, bud. Lucy here wanted to thank you. Lucy, this is my partner Detective Maclean."

"Thank you, Detective Maclean. I didn't think I'd get out of there alive."

Ryo smiled at her. "I had the easy part. If you hadn't stayed as still as you did, it would've been a lot harder."

"I was too scared to move," she admitted. "I'm terrified of heights."

"But you didn't panic; most people would have. You were brave, that's what kept you alive long enough to be rescued. Remember that."

"I didn't feel brave."

Remembering the time he'd been held hostage with a gun to his head, Dee smiled wryly. "No one ever does." He steered Lucy over to the ambulance. "Better get you checked out, and I'll need to take your statement when you feel up to it."

Lucy nodded. "Okay. Thanks, Detective… I didn't catch your name…"

"Laytner." Leaving the girl with the paramedics, Dee and Ryo walked away from the crowds to lean on the wall at the bottom of the building's front stoop.

Ryo studied Dee carefully. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It was tense up there, couple times I thought he was goin' to open fire, and the way his hand was shakin' there was no telling who he might've hit, but we got the job done, just like always. You know what I feel like doin'?"

"What's that?"

"Tonight, after we clock off, picnic at my place, up on the roof. You can even bring the House Ape if you want, long as you make him promise to stay away from the edge." After today's events Dee felt the need to restore the feeling of safety he'd always associated with rooftops, remind himself that being high above the streets was pleasant. As he'd grabbed for Lucy and she'd clutched at him, there'd been a split second when it could have gone the other way, with her dragging him over the edge to their deaths, but he'd had the weight advantage and just managed to tip them the other way. Now he wanted to erase that memory by creating a better one.

"Bikky can spend the night at Carol's, I'm sure her aunt won't mind. He was going over there after school anyway. Tomorrow's not a school day so I could stay over at yours."

"That would be good," Dee said, nodding slightly. "Right, back to work. See ya later." He slapped Ryo on the back and they went their separate ways, Dee to the ambulance and Lucy, Ryo back to the tactical unit's van. It had been a tough day, and there were still loose ends to tie up and reports to write, but the rest of the day would pass quickly in routine tasks. The night ahead would be theirs alone.

The End


End file.
